Fiction > Book editions > London, 1888 - Prince Otto

A ROMANCE 31
brambles began calling on Ottilia by name. She
changed colour at that. 'It is Fritz,' she said.
* I must go,'
' Go, my dear, and I need not bid you go in
peace, for I think you have discovered that I am
not formidable at close quarters,' said the Prince,
and made her a fine gesture of dismissal.
So Ottiha skipped up the bank, and dis-
appeared into the thicket, stopping once for a
single blushing bob — blushing, because she had
in the interval once more forgotten and remem-
bered the stranger's quaUty.
Otto returned to his rock promontory ; but
his humour had in the meantime changed. The
sun now shone more fairly on the pool ; and over
its brown, welling surface, the blue of heaven
and the golden green of the spring foliage danced
in fleeting arabesque. The eddies laughed and
brightened with essential colour. And the beauty
of the dell began to rankle in the Prince's mind ;
it was so near to his own borders, yet without.
He had never had much of the joy of possessor-
ship in any of the thousand and one beautiful
and curious things that were his ; and now he
was conscious of envy for what was another's.
It was, indeed, a smiling, dilettante sort of envy ;
but yet there it was : the passion of Ahab for the
vineyard, done in little ; and he was relieved
when Mr. Killian appeared upon the scene.